Sunday, December 06, 2009

The Reunion is sweet, and the longing is finally over.... After 3 years of her disappearance, Juliet returned with beauty and grace. A Shakespearian drama with a happy ending.

Companying her voyage are an army of 70s-80s yixings, ranging from 40ml to 180ml. All cleaned up and documented here in this post.

I hope all yixing fans could learn one or two things from my previous post Flagstaff Yixing Teapot Museum, Hong Kong, using museum pieces as reference to guide yourself when purchasing older pots. Most of those museum pots' market value is from US $10K and up to almost a million, ranging from early 17c to 90's. So price (collector's select) could be the first indication of its authenticity. Buying a Rong Jiang's pot for under 10K will surely be a tuition.

*This is a craftsman grade 40 ml SP, the smallest functional SP i've ever seen. Made in the 80's using 'Factory stored' early (after ROC) Ben Shan muo luni, with more coarse and sparkle gold sand. You can see the clay difference from a later replica.

Thank you for all your comments. I added some background on the blue clay, as a direct quote from the collector whom I got these from. So, please take it with a grain of salt ; )

Stacey-She was sent back to Yixing to repair. Kind of a lost profession on repairing and gilding teawares. The Master is in his 70s, and work in his Leisure. So, I am lucky to get her back after 3 years.

Thanks for the info. I have one precious (to me) piece that I would like to have repaired someday, but it seems it really is a lost art. Hopefully some of the revivals in tradition will make this an option for me someday.

I also have a very precious pot which has the lid broken on the edges, so I am intersted by any information about possibilities of repair. Thanks!

I went to a jeweler artist who told that a repair only with gold will be too expansive (even for a very priced pot), he proposed to use epoxy resine and then cover it with thin gold leaves. But I am not satsified with the result... It is very disapointing because with the hot water the gold remove (I guess it wasn't well made) and I am not sure of the health safety of the epoxy he used...

I am not sure, but I just found a small 80s or 1990 artisan luni shui ping factory 1 teapot in Kuala Lumpur that might be from the same batch (I don't know what year yours is). Looks exactly the same!!!!! I got a great deal, and I am so very in love with it.